She had meticulously transcribed every portion of the scrawled messages. But now, cold and distracted, Margaret felt reluctant to share her secret. The implications weighed upon her.

Out of habit, she stored a backup of her work in an alcove, then took the original datawafer and hurried into the chamber where Louis continued to tinker with the portal wall machinery.

Though her skin was pale and her eyes wide, he was too focused on his own exciting discovery to notice anything wrong. “Well, dear, I think I’ve got this now. I compared this setup with the other portal walls we discovered on Llaro, Pym, and Corribus. If we dig deep enough into the database we’ll find at least one portal wall inside every Klikiss city. But this one is different.”

Pressing a hand to the small of his aching back, he went over to the wall and pointed to coordinate tiles near the upper left corner of the trapezoid. “At the other sites, some of the destination tiles were destroyed, as if someone smashed them before departure. Whatever happened to the Klikiss, whoever sent them away or destroyed them… never finished here on Rheindic Co.”

“It was a war, Louis,” Margaret said. “An incredibly destructive war between titanic forces. The Klikiss race was a powerful empire, yet they were insignificant players on such an immense battleground. Their robots took part in some manner, though the details are unclear.” Louis was fascinated. “But what kind of war? Who were the Klikiss fighting against?”

She drew a deep breath. “The hydrogues, Louis! The deepcore aliens. This isn’t the first time they’ve attacked.”

Louis gasped, his astonishment melting into a boyish grin. “That’s incredible, Margaret. First, the portal wall discovery and now this ancient war between the Klikiss and the hy-drogues—not even the Klikiss Torch can match such a breakthrough!” He hugged her again. “We have to send news right away. Everybody needs to know.”

Margaret grabbed her husband by the shoulders, squeezing hard enough that his smile faded. “Louis, don’t you understand? The hydrogues completely wiped out the Klikiss. They caused the race’s extinction across the Spiral Arm.” She looked hard at him, but he still didn’t seem to see. “And now they’ve begun to attack humans!”

Margaret glanced into the other word-filled tunnels where the Klikiss ideographs were messier and harder to decipher, as if someone had scribbled them in a rush. “DD, go string lights back in the deep passages. I think I can unravel the last of those records now.”

“We need to get back to Arcas,” Louis said. “He can send the details to everyone in the Hansa.”

“I will be happy to do the work here while you return to camp, Margaret and Louis,” DD said.